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Annex C7 -- Socioeconomics Supplemental Information C7 - 10
Further findings of the survey include:
� 29 percent of the children younger than 5 years sampled for malaria at the time of the
survey tested positive for the disease. This survey was conducted at the beginning of
the main rainy season when vector densities were still low, so it is possible that a late
rainy season survey would find higher rates of malaria. There are significant differences
in the malaria seroprevalence rates between villages with some of the highest rates
found in Hweakwae and Adausena.
� Knowledge about malaria and prevention of infection were inadequate – only 65 percent
of the respondents knew that the mosquito was the only means of acquiring malaria.
� Only 15 percent of households owned an insecticide-treated mosquito net.
� It is estimated that only 29 percent of the children younger than five slept under an
insecticide-treated mosquito net prior to the International SOS survey interview.
� Only 18 percent of the children who are younger than five and experienced a fever in
the two weeks prior to the interview, were treated with Artemisinin-based combination
therapy (ACT) as recommended in the National Malaria Control Programme guidelines
(GRRL 2008).
The true prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the Study Area is unknown, but the 4.2 percent rate for
the Eastern Region is the highest in the country (GRRL 2008). The prevalence rate for the
Birim North District is 3 percent and this data is based on 869 antenatal screenings
conducted in New Abirem in 2006 (Newfields 2007 cited in GRRL 2008). It is not possible
to know if this data can be reliably extrapolated across the Study Area.
Malnutrition is present in the Study Area, even though there are good breastfeeding
practices. The level of children that are underweight (17.3 percent) or wasted (8 percent)
correlate with country statistics (GRRL 2008).
Although the coverage of the World Health Organisation’s expanded immunization
programme is good in the District and is seen as a model for rural health in the country,
only 58 percent of the children in the Study Area participated in growth monitoring and 42
percent participated in immunization, as reported by both International SOS and OICI, in
GRRL (2008).
Water Supply
The International SOS survey, as cited in GRRL (2008), found that in 2005, 93.7 percent of
the respondents interviewed in the Study Area had access to an improved drinking water
source, either through a public tap (54.4 percent) or a protected well (38.9 percent). Only
6.3 percent of those interviewed make use of unimproved drinking water sources (GRRL
2008).
Akyem Gold Mining Project November 2008 FINAL EIS